Postpaid or Prepaid Cell Phones

Today, practically everyone is mobile. In fact, a lot of people have gone completely mobile by disconnecting their landline altogether and just using their mobile phone. The cost for mobile phone service can get expensive though if you do not have it fully optimized for your needs and the best way to optimize your phone bill is to start by determining whether you need a postpaid cell phone plan or a prepaid cell phone plan.

The postpaid plans and prepaid plans are just as the name implies. With a postpaid plan, the user pays the bill at the end of every billing cycle. With a prepaid plan, the user pays for their usage beforehand. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Postpaid Plans

The advantage of a postpaid plan is the lower cost per minute or per kilobyte of data. The disadvantage is that you have to pay the minimum amount regardless of whether or not you use all of the minutes or kilobytes of data. For a prepaid plan, the opposite is true. You prepay for a certain number of minutes and kilobytes of data. It does not matter when you use the minutes and data whether it is in one month or over the course of several months.

Prepaid Plans

If you are on a limited budget and just need a cell phone for occasional communication, then you might want to consider the prepaid option. The prepaid plans start as low as $10 per card and can be reloaded in any amount. This cost is significantly less than that of a postpaid plan and allows you more control over your expenses. If you have a budget of $20 per month, for example, then you can just purchase a $20 prepaid card each month and manage your usage for the month.

You will not have to worry about any overages either. This is one part of a cell phone bill that can get really expensive if you are not careful. With a prepaid plan, your service just cuts off once you reach the maximum allotted minutes or data usage. You will not have to pay a penny more than what you already preplanned.

The bottom line with cell phone plans is to take the time to completely analyze your average monthly usage. Do not just stick with your current plan and continue making the payments each month. You might be surprised at how easily you could save money on your cell phone bill.